Cycling Divergence
by vitcini
Summary: Jack Vessalius, his memories stolen, bears an ethereal power manifesting itself into the Black Rabbit, and, alongside a red-eyed girl and dark-haired boy who call themselves his companions, searches for the truth. And following his so-called unforgivable "sin" leads him to the terrible event of 100 years ago: the Tragedy of Sablier. [AU; Oz/Alice/Gil—Jack/Lacie/Oswald roleswap]
1. prologue: inbound

_V/N: I love roleswaps to death. I don't even have an excuse for this I just love roleswaps to absolute fucking death, almost as much as I love Lacie. Goddammit. Someone put me out of my misery. Also warning for possible (definite) oocness. Enjoy!_

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pandora Hearts. Pandora Hearts and all its characters belong rightfully to Jun Mochizuki-sensei.  
><em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Cycling Divergence<strong>_

_prologue: inbound_

* * *

><p>The first thing Jack wakes up to is pure white. Whiter than porcelain, whiter than puffy cotton-candy clouds, whiter than the snowfall of winter; so white and pure and translucent that there was a sort of... sinister aura to the room. <em>Room...?<em> Jack thinks, dazed. _I'm in a room...?_

He opens his eyes completely, squinting at the brightness of his surroundings despite there being no actual light source in the room—which was strange, because where was all this light coming from? He cranes his neck around, eyes still half lidded from sleepiness; the room he stands in (_standing? wasn't he asleep just now?_) is large and circular, with a rounded ceiling hanging above. The ceiling in question, the walls, the floor, was checkerboard patterned, completely monotonous aside from the furniture and countless dolls littering the tables, chairs, shelves, floor, everywhere.

"Where..." his voice echoes off the black and white walls, slowly fading as time ticks by, "...am I?"

Suddenly the laughing started.

It wasn't the type of laugh that started quietly and slowly descended into deafening measures, the thundering laughter resonated in his ears like a cacophony of discord. Multiple disembodied voices reverberated with roars of mirth obviously as his own expense. The chaotic sounds seemed to come from nowhere in particular; rather, it originated from everywhere at once in a terrifying capacity. But then, with a closer look at the space he stood in, and he realized with a horrified start that the laughter came from the toys and dolls.

"He—he—_he_ came back! Aha... —He finally came back! _Aah~_ she's gonna be so happy, happy, happy...!"

With every mocking howl and whoop towards his direction Jack took a wavering step back, fear freezing his joints still. And suddenly he thinks with frightened shock, _Am I... Am I going to die here... —?!_

"Now, now everyone. Quiet down, you're frightening him."

A soft, feminine voice spoke up from behind him, and despite the seemingly harmless and gentle tone, there was an underlying menace—a type of shakiness in her voice that shook him to his core. _Maybe I really am going to die here..._

Slowly, cautiously, Jack craned his head behind him. There a door frame on the wall, its design elaborate and refined and _how did he not notice it before?_ A girl about 14 or 15 years of age stood in the doorway, a long white dress adorning her small figure, her long dark hair flowing behind her, dark bangs shadowing her eyes. She smiled, and leaped into his arms, her thin arms hooking around his neck.

"You finally came back to me..! I've waited so long for you... I always knew you'd come back for me, just like you'd always say you would." She hugged him tight, and despite her thin frame her embrace was tight and strong enough to force him into immobility—or maybe that was just his own fear and shock holding him in place.

"Wh-wha..." Jack snapped out of his stupor, pushing the girl back and jumping backwards away form her. "What are you doing?! What-what am I doing here?! Did you... bring me here?! And-and... And who are you?"

The girl, shadows of her hair still concealing her eyes, slowly looked up at him. "Who... am I?" She stands up shakily, stepping towards him ominously, trapping him between the wall behind—_since when had the wall come so close to them_—and her small yet terrifying figure. Her skin was so cold that Jack would have thought she was a corpse if it weren't for the trembling of her fingers on his forearm.

"I am..." her voice started out soft, just barely a whisper in round, echoing room they stood in, "I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am—" With every repeated cry of "I am", the girl's voice rose in volume and viciousness as did Jack's fear and confusion, and her grip on his arm until he was sure that her fingernails had broken skin and he was bleeding. Though at the moment. he couldn't feel anything but fear for his life.

"_I am going... to **kill you**._"

Then everything was destroyed.

The dolls, giggling at his misfortune despite their impending demise, disintegrated into dusts, the walls and the ceiling and the floor and everything shattered like glass and fell into an endless void of darkness, and the girl, the girl still clung to him for life, but she—she _morphed_. Her skin, her dress, her face, everything but her dark dark hair shredded off into dust like a snakeskin and what replaced it was pale, white skin like before and the dress replaced by a short black skirt, a white dress shirt, and long pitch-black coat that bled into the black void like it was made entirely out of shadows. And her eyes, those eyes that were hidden in the shadows she was wearing right now, they were endless voids of emptiness just like what they were falling in. And she was grinning, a vicious, bloodthirsty grin that spoke nothing of mirth and everything of hatred.

"_I'll kill you I'll kill you I'll, I'll—_" she gasped out these words like her last dying breath, and they very well may have been even though Jack would probably be the one to lose his life right then and there. "_How dare you... How dare you... I'll never... I'll never forgive you. This is all your fault. This is all your FAULT!_"

Her small hands curled around his throat, cold fingers squeezing at his fragile skin, fingernails digging in his neck and leaving warm trails of red trickling down his chest and her arms. Then she suddenly pulled his face close to hers, close enough for him to feel her cold icy breath on his nose, and, viciously, she growled—

"_**I'll destroy you.**_"

And Jack screams.

* * *

><p><em>VN: Apologies for starting it at such an arbitrary spot in the story, and end it in an equally arbitrary spot. But no worries! For I will be uploading the first chapter right after this prologue, just so I won't have to feel guilty for leaving you guys with just this. Anyways, til next time!_

_Please review, it really helps out. Thanks!_


	2. I: inauguration

_V/N: Well, as I said in the last chapter, I decided to upload both the prologue and first chapter at once because, hey, I have a lot to say in these things! Anyways, I honestly do have a LOT planned for this fic and I hope to stick close to it even though I know in my heart that it will be **long**, so be warned. The point is: I hope you enjoy!_

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pandora Hearts. Pandora Hearts and all its characters belong rightfully to Jun Mochizuki-sensei._

* * *

><p><span><em>I: inauguration<em>

* * *

><p>Jack wakes up suddenly, erratically, with a start. He gasps out, sucking in air desperately, an aftereffect from that girl choking him to near death just earlier. But wait—did that <em>really<em> happen? Or was just... a dream? _I really hope that was a dream,_ Jack thinks, eyes clenched in effort, hand grabbing at his chest in fear of his heart bursting out. And he keeps lying there, wherever he was, clutching his chest and trying to catch his breath as his heartbeat slowed, then suddenly, a voice spoke up—

"Are you okay?"

His eyes snap open in alarm, and he flinches away from a pale hand reaching for his shoulder. The person—the _girl_ that the hand belonged to, blinked in confusion, but didn't seem much further fazed by his alarm and simple retracted her hand, smiling. She was a beautiful girl, really, her dark purple dress torn and tattered to near pieces but somehow looking characteristic on her. Her skin was pale, and her hair long and black and reaching past her knees easily. The amount of semblance she had to the girl from before, the girl who had tried to kill him, filled him with fear once again, but a look at this girl's eyes immediately replaced his fear with wonder. Her eyes were intoxicating, pulling him in, colored a deep blood red that was mystical and mysterious in its own right. It was clear to Jack that this girl... did not belong to this world.

Her smile widened. "My name is Lacie. Who are you?"

"...Me?" he said slowly, blinking in a dazed confusion, though he doesn't know why he's confused. He knows what his name is. It was the first thing he knew for certain, without a doubt in his mind when he woke up. He is... "I am... Jack. Just Jack."

He didn't know whether she was smiling or smirking, but he couldn't look away from the interest making her rosy hues glisten. "'Jack'?" she giggled. "What a dull name!"

Despite her harsh and frank words, this _Lacie_ reached out a pale hand to him, offering him help up. He glanced up at her in confusion, and she smiled wider. Hesitating just a bit, Jack shakily gripped her hand and hoisted himself upright. Where he was expecting ice cold skin gripping his like a vice, Lacie's hand was warm. _Thank god,_ and he sighed softly with relief.

Jack glanced around at their surroundings. They were standing ankle-deep in a black liquid that seemed to pull at his feet like they had their own sentience, and they were surrounded by endless black and what seemed to be multiple buildings, floating in midair. Most of them were falling apart, some just plain brick walls or even piles of bricks just feet away from hitting the ground, though they stayed midair, as if frozen in time.

"Where... are we?" he asks, disoriented from... well, everything that happened up until now.

"Hm... Where? Well, we are in—"

And suddenly the word hits him hard and fast, the memory blooming in his head, memories of blood and corpses and monsters and the word _B-Rabbit_, and the memory fades away just as fast as it was come to him. But he definitely got something out of it, the name of this place, what it was, and this place was—

"The Abyss..." He whispers it just under his breath, so softly that he'd be surprised if Lacie even heard him, surprise at his own revelation immobilizing him.

Lacie did seem to hear him, however, as she turned her head to him and arched her eyebrow, smiling in interest right after. "That's right. We're in the Abyss. So you remember it too?"

Jack's stance becomes shaky, his knees wavering and causing him to stumble back a step or two. "U-um, kind of, but... Not really _remember_. It's more like I just... know it."

"So you have no memory of before you woke up here?" she asks, getting a shake of the head in response. "Hm... So you too."

Jack stares around at the area surrounding them, with the crumbling town and liquid ground. "What are..." he starts, the question directed at his companion, "...you doing here?"

Lacie quirks an eyebrow at him. "What am _I_ doing here? I should be asking _you_ that. What are you doing here, Jack?"

Jack blinks, the question bringing a blank to his head, but for some reason bringing a chill to his spine. "I'm not... I don't remember."

"Well, I don't remember either. But we're both here anyway, with our memories equally gone, for what seems to be no particular reason." She starts pacing around aimlessly, kicking up dark liquid with her shoes. "Well, in any case, we should work in our best interests."

"Best interests? What do you mean?" Jack asks.

"Well, you _do_ want to get out of here, right?"

"Ah—well, of course I do, but..." He glances about at the destroyed buildings, black liquid, and endless black space surrounding the two of them. "How are we going to do that?"

"Well there's nothing to do but walk around and look for something to lead us on," she says, starting to amble in a random direction away from him.

Jack blinks in confusion. Were they really going to try and just _look_ for an exit, in this kind of desolate place?

Lacie stops to turn back at him. "Well? Aren't you coming?"

"Ah—" Jack starts, jumping to his feet to follow her. "Wait for me!"

The two of them walked aimlessly for a while in the same direction, the area around them occasionally changing but mostly just consisting of the same thing: debilitated buildings and walls and miscellaneous debris littering the place. Some of the structures were still sturdy enough to make some shape of it, enough shape to bring about a strange feeling of nostalgia, but that strange feeling disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

"Lacie," Jack speaks up suddenly, gaining the other's attention. "Do you really not remember anything from your past?"

Lacie blinks. "Yes, really. Why do you ask? Are you... _doubting me_, Jack?"

"Ah, well," he stutters, "it's not that I don't trust what you say, it's just... I kind of feel like I recognize some of what we see here. And I was wondering if you felt the same way... considering from your expression."

Lacie continues to stare at him, with a vague kind of expression that almost looks like surprise. Then she suddenly starts laughing. "I see... You're much more perspective than you seem, considering you look and act rather like an airhead."

Despite her harsh words, Jack just laughs sheepishly. "Aha, well, I guess I do, don't I?"

Lacie stares at him with a hard expression. "You are such a strange man, being able to laugh like that when someone just harshly insults you, or when you're in this kind of situation."

Jack just laughs sheepishly again, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Lacie just sighs. "To answer your question, yes. I do feel like I've... seen this before. It can't be a coincidence."

"Do you think," Jack asks, "that all this used to belong to our world?"

Lacie is quiet for a few seconds, for some reason. "Well I—" Her eyes shift to him, suddenly widen to the size of saucer plates, and she cries out, "Jack, behind you!"

"Wha—" A tremor interrupts him mid-sentence, the liquid lining the ground they stood on trembling into little waves. Slowly, Jack turns behind him, and sees... something. Some kind of creature, horrific and terrifying, a doll-like creature with a bulbous head and ragged body, stitches littering its battered body. Its eye were empty voids of black, near identical to the ones of the girl from Jack's dream. He opens his mouth, most likely to scream, but a hand grabs his wrist to wrench him to the side before the giant arm, larger than the thing's own body, swung down to smash into the spot where he was standing.

"What—" he gasps out, falling back in shock from his recent near death experience. "What _is_ that thing?!"

"A Chain," Lacie says, red eyes glued to the creature, the _Chain_. "A creature that lives in the Abyss. Dammit, I should have expected...!"

Jack pants heavily, managing to slide away at the last second alongside Lacie just as the Chain swings down its arm once more. "W-wait," he pants, catching his breath. "If you... If you knew what that thing is... and expected it to come here... why didn't you tell me about it before?"

Lacie gets up to her feet, staring the Chain down defiantly despite the huge difference in both size and power. "I had to see if I could trust you enough. If not, I would have ran off without you. But I guess I waited too long—!"

The Chain swung its arm down, and Lacie dashed to the side as it crashed into the ground. Jack tried to scramble away, but was backed up against a wall, and when the Chain turned its head with its empty voids of eyes towards him, he knew he was trapped. His heartbeat pounded against his ribcage so hard that he was afraid that the Chain might have heard it. Slowly, horrifically, the Chain made its way to him. _I'm going to die here. I'm really going to die here. I'm..._ The Chain swung its arm down—

And suddenly burst into dust.

Standing right where the Chain used to be was a young girl. She stood with a single leg raised up in front of her, making it likely that she somehow _kicked_ the previously attacking Chain into dust. For a moment Jack thought it was Lacie, but she wasn't Lacie. A girl with long, dark brown hair, and a black skirt and white dress shirt, and a purple-ish black coat that faded into the shadows, and _it's her_. Terror grabs a hold of him once again, but he relaxes into a mix of shock and confusion when he sees that where those empty, bottomless voids used to be, were a pair of violet eyes.

"You're..." He trails off, losing his voice to shock.

"Surprised, Jack?" He snaps his head to the side, where Lacie stood behind the girl. "Because that's quite the interesting expression you're wearing."

"L-Lacie?! What just... Did you...?!" Jack scrambled to his feet, supporting himself on the wall behind him.

"Yes, that was me. You should thank me, you would have died if I hadn't intervened." Lacie walked over to the side of the girl, and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "This is my Chain. Her name is Alice. Humans can make what are called 'Contracts' with Chains in order to get their power. And don't worry," Lacie adds when she sees Jack stiffen at the word 'Chain', "I'll make sure Alice won't do you any harm. Say hello, Alice."

Alice glowered at Jack, her eyes ark and shadowed by her hair, making Jack jump at the hostility she seemed to express to him. But then she immediately relaxed and said, simply, "Hi." Alice then turned to Lacie. "Can we leave this place now? I'm hungry!" She sounded so childishly petulant and so like a human that it amazed and amused Jack at the same time. But wait, _what she said_—

"Wait," Jack interrupts suddenly. "We can leave here? Anytime and anywhere you choose?"

Lacie nodded. "With Alice's power, yes."

"Why didn't you mention or do that before?"

"I've already said it, haven't I?" Lacie questioned, smiling at Jack. "I had to see if I could trust you. You could have been a mass murderer, who knows?"

Jack continues to stare at Lacie in confusion. "But... if you're so cautious, why didn't you just leave me there when you found me asleep? Why did you wake me?"

Somehow he manages to render Lacie silent for a few moments with his question. "Because I..." she trails off vaguely, turning her head away. "Because when I saw you there, I just... couldn't leave you alone."

"...Eh?"

Suddenly, a black shadow appeared right beside Lacie, the shadow having the exact same shape of that Chain that just attacked them earlier. Lacie, however, was too distracted to see it coming, and Alice equally occupied with tugging at the ruffles on Lacie's dress so she could somehow transport them out of the Abyss. _If I don't do anything, then Lacie will...—!_

"_Lacie!_"

Jack mind goes blank, his body goes slack, time slows to a halt—and somehow, suddenly, he doesn't know how, the Chain burst into dust, fading away into nonexistence. He's vaguely aware of some kind of pain burning at his chest, something holding him back, like chains binding his arms and legs and he needs to _break free_— but then he catches sight of several other Chains, all identical to the first, and it happens again. Everything fades into dust, scattering away into nothing—_maybe he's moving, maybe he's holding something long and sharp and deadly, maybe there's __some sort of__ monstrous __presence__ hovering __over__ him and wrapping around his limb__s__, he doesn't know, he doesn't care_—and Jack is...!

"Jack!"

Someone's voice, Lacie's voice, break through his stupor, snaps him out of whatever kind of trance he was in, and time starts moving again. Somehow, he doesn't know how, he's moved from his previous spot by the wall to right beside Lacie and Alice, and in his hands he held a giant blade scythe that seemed to be glowing with distorted power. Lacie behind him was shocked, red eyes widened in what was shock and horror combined. And Alice right alongside Lacie, with her violet eyes rimmed and shining with what were strangely tears, stared at Jack with a strange mix of shock and horror and anger. Jack opens his mouth to speak—

Then something else happens.

Some other kind of force, something other than his own shock, freezes his limbs and renders him unable to move. A bright light shines from behind him, and he glances over his shoulder with effort to see what looked like a literal _crack_ in the air, shining with a blinding light. The crack grew larger, broken shards of, well, _reality_ falling to the ground. A sudden strong force started sucking them into the crack. Alice dispersed into dust, and Lacie stumbled to the ground, the force pulling her towards the crack.

"Lacie!" Jack shouted in alarm and concern.

Lacie turned her red eyes to him. "Ja—"

With a sudden shine of light, Lacie disappeared into the crack.

And, without a second thought, Jack leaped in after her.

Darkness consumed him, a sudden tremor shaking him to the core simultaneously with when a sudden increase in gravity pulled him down into an endless void. Pain racked his joints, the world beginning to spin so rapidly before his eyes that he had to shut them closed lest he lost his lunch. Everything was happening so fast, so strongly, all at once, never stopping— Then everything freezes.

And Jack's consciousness fades away from the world.

* * *

><p><em>VN: Alright, so this was kind of done in a rush due to my wanting to move past this stage of the introduction as quickly as possible. What can I say, I'm an impatient person. But the point is, look forward to an update real soon, since I'm very excited to introduce a_ certain_ handsome, black-haired youth who was, unfortunately, the target obsession of a _certain_ red-haired beheader. Please review!_


	3. II: introduction

_V/N: Time for more scene changing and more characters that aren't Jack, Alice, or Lacie. And also time to introduce the third main character of the fic! Hooray! Enjoy._

_**Disclaimer:**___I do not own Pandora Hearts. Pandora Hearts and all its characters belong rightfully to Jun Mochizuki-sensei.__

* * *

><p><span><em><em>II: introduction<em>_

* * *

><p><em><em>He's covered in blood. It isn't his own blood, but it's still just as a horrifying revelation as any. Corpses litter the ground he stands on, the stench of death and chaos and the world shattering before him invad<em>___es____ his nostrils, and it's a wonder he hasn't gotten sick yet. Far away he can hear still the terrified screams and pleas and 'I don't wanna die's echoing through the halls he stood in. I____t's terrifying and awful and horrid and __Why is this happening, why is he doing this, why, why, why—

__And h____e's ____facing a man. Looks just a bit older than him, dark hair and dark eyes, a handsome youth he's facing. In the others hand a sword is held, silver blade dripping in blood, with corpses splayed around his feet and rings of blood staining the carpet he stands on. Jack ____is panting hard, puffs of breath passing his lips erratically as he____ stares down the man—his __friend_—___with tears forming in his eyes and fury burning in his heart.__

__And Jack is crying. His heart is grieving and he doesn't know why but he needs to— __I need to stop him.__ Who? It doesn't matter. He needs to stop ___him___. If he doesn't stop him then everything, all his efforts will be for nothing. Everything he's done, everyone he's manipulated, every sin he's committed will all be in vain. He can't let that happen. ____He can't... __I won't forgive... anyone who stands in my way...—!

_"_Why... Why ____are you doing this? Why are you doing such a horrible thing?! Answer me!"__

__The other man is moving his mouth, answering him with unimportant, arbitrary words, but Jack doesn't listen. Because that doesn't matter. Nothing else matters, because this is all his ___fault___. Everything is _all. His. Fault._

__Words are shouted to each other, rage burning in both of their hearts, each for different reasons. A child with black hair, messier than Jack's opponent, runs in, screaming something like don't fight, don't fight, please stop it you two. Someone's sword flies (his own? his friend's? who did it, he doesn't know) and the boy is cut down, blood flying everywhere, splattering Jack's clothes. He turns his head to his opponent, whose expression is one of pure rage.__

__The ground shakes before him, he loses his balance, and the dark-haired man flies at him, sword outstretched, black eyes glaring— and the sword snaps in two, a slash of red blooming down his chest, crimson further staining the carpet they stand on. Chains, glittering and glowing in ominous power float before him, and Jack turns to face a giant being with a large scythe and black fur and red eyes that bring about destruction, and Jack smiles—__

* * *

><p>Jack wakes up gasping for air, blurry images of the nightmare he just had flashing before his eyes, images of blood and death and corpses and monsters and that man— His disorientation and sudden awakening reminds him bitterly of when he first woke up in the dark emptiness of the Abyss, with nothing but the clothes on his back and the strange red-eyed girl who found him. Wait—Lacie. <em>Is she okay?<em> The last thing Jack could remember was being sucked into darkness right after Lacie and then going unconscious to dream that horrific dream. Was she—?

_Where,_ he thinks, _am I?_ He pushes himself up into a sitting position with his hand, feeling a soft surface cushioning his aching body, thankfully. A thick sheet of cloth is draped over his body, an even softer cloud cushioning his head likewise, and Jack realizes that he's in a bed. _Whose_ bed though? And he doesn't remember even going to bed, or even waking up after getting sucked in by whatever that thing was after Lacie, so how did—

"Ah, so he's finally awake."

A voice, sounding male and ominously mischievous, perks up from right at the foot of the bed Jack lay in. The suddenness of his statement made Jack jump in surprise, and the man whose voice belonged to chuckled at his reaction. He was a strange looking man, with greyish white hair that covered his left eye, and his right eye being a red hue that glinted with mischief and laughter, though not the friendly kind. His smile matched the mischief reflecting in his single eye. Oddly enough too, there was a doll sitting on his shoulder. Jack's first thought is, _What a weird man._

"Who are..." Jack trails off, his mind still hazy from the nightmare.

"Oh, he's awake already? Is he alright?" Another, softer, more feminine voice spoke up from the other end of the room, and a surprisingly young girl walked over to the bed beside the man. She look about 14, surprisingly, considering the way she acted and held herself seemed so mature for how young she seemed. She had caramel-colored hair tied back in a high ponytail, and dark pink eyes. Her eyes were kind and concerned, unlike the other who only found amusement in his confusion.

"Break, I think you're frightening him. Or at least irritating him, like you do to everyone else," the girl says to the man, _Break_ must be his name, her tone teasing.

Break just chuckles. "That's mean Sharon-sama. I'm sure I don't irritate everyone I first meet."

"I think _Oswald_ begs to differ," the girl, _Sharon_ replies simply.

Jack was barely paying attention to the conversation though, his mind still hazy, his nightmare nagging at his head nonstop. And most of all, there was the thought of a certain someone tugging at his mind—

"Where..." he says softly, gaining of the attention of both of them. "Where is... Lacie..?"

Break blinks. "Lacie? You've just woken up to complete strangers, and after what you've experienced too, and all you can think about is your little companion?" He laughs, almost mockingly. "My, aren't you such an interesting man!"

Vague feelings of indignation makes him frown at the white-haired man, while Sharon just ambled to the door on the opposite wall and pulled it open. And on the other end of the door, a man was standing there, a hand outstretched awkwardly to most likely knock at the door before it opened suddenly. He seemed around Jack's age, perhaps a bit older, with black hair and dark eyes and a handsome, familiar face. And with a start, Jack realizes that this man is the man from his nightmare.

"Ah, Oswald-san!" Sharon said. "What are you doing here? Did you need something?"

The man, _Oswald_ his name seemed to be (_what a nostalgic name too,_ Jack muses to himself, strangely enough), retracted his hand and cleared his throat. "I just finished questioning the girl and I came to—"

"'The girl'? I _happen_ to have a name, you know," a relieving familiar voice spoke up, just as Lacie walked into the room, brushing aside Oswald as she walked in.

Jack, of course, perked up immediately, grinning like at idiot at the sight of her. "Lacie, you're okay!"

Oswald seemed indignant by her appearance though. "How did you get out of the room? I'm sure locked you in."

"Well, amazingly, even though my memory is gone I can still pick a lock with ease," she says before turning her attention to Jack. "Nice to see you again, Jack. I'm glad you're not hurt."

Jack flushes at her words, and grins even wider, laughing sheepishly. "I'm glad you're okay too..."

"Aha, well," Break spoke up, getting everyone's attention, "I'd hate to ruin this sweet moment, but there's business to attend to. Such as, introductions! So let's all leave Jack-kun to get dressed and everything, shall we?"

"I promise, we'll explain everything afterward to you, Jack-san. Now come, Oswald-san, Lacie-san. You too, Break." Sharon waves for the white-haired man to come follow.

"See you soon, Jack-kun," Break says, smiling and waving goodbye and Sharon escorts the bickering Oswald and Lacie out the door, leaving a confused Jack to his own devices.

* * *

><p>Soon Jack was washed up and dressed in brand new, not falling apart clothes, and was sitting in a fancy dining room with elaborately made furniture and exquisite foods. It was clear that the house he was in belonged to someone wealthy, perhaps a noble of some sort. Lacie sat on his right side, absently eating her food despite the tense atmosphere of the room. Oswald didn't bother sitting down at the table at all, he just stood nearby leaning against the wall. Almost brooding, really. Sharon sat right across from Jack, Break idling around next to her, while Jack himself was at the head of the table. How convenient.<p>

"In case you were wondering, Jack-kun," Break said, nibbling on a piece of cake, while the rest of them hadn't even gone halfway through dinner no less, "right now, we are in one of the Rainsworth family's mansions. We just happened to find you in the family's Gates to the Abyss, so we took you in, you and Lacie-san." Break gestured to Lacie, who remained uninterested in the conversation.

Jack took in Break's words slowly. _Rainsworth..._ What a familiar name. "Um, who... are you three?" Jack asks, eyes flickering shortly to the still-brooding Oswald standing at the wall. The blond pulls a plate with a slice of cake towards him, idly picking at the pastry with his fork.

"Us? Well," Break says, scooping up at least half of Jack's cake, and, ignoring Jack's protest of 'Hey!', eats it whole in two, three bites. "We are part of an organization called Pandora. Ever hear of it?"

Calming down from his indignation from his cake being stolen, Jack shook his head. "No. I didn't remember anything expect my name when I woke up in the Abyss."

"Well you seem to remember the Abyss," Break says as swoops down for the rest of Jack's cake, and Jack, now prepared, pulls the treat away from his reach. "Pandora basically maintains the order of this country, dealing with crime and whatnot. But we also are involved with research of the Abyss, you see. My name is Xerxes Break. I am a valet of the Rainsworth house.

"And this," Break adds, pointing to the strange doll on his shoulder, "is Emily. Say hello, Emily!" The doll clacked loudly,akin the sound of wood hitting wood, baffling Jack due toall kinds reasons.

"And I am Sharon Rainsworth," Sharon says, her eyes as kind as ever.

"And the brooding young man over there is Oswald," Break says, gesturing to the dark-haired man. Oswald just glared at Break and turned away stoically.

"Another thing as well," Break says, seating himself onto the table. "We can't just let you two walk away either. Because we are members of Pandora."

"Eh?" Jack says. Lacie seemed to perk up at the comment as well, her red eyes narrowing in caution. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we have our suspicions that you... _Lacie-san_," Break points his fork mockingly at Lacie, who glared at him, "are what we've been looking for... We're almost certain that you, Lacie-san, is bearing the famed Chain—"

"_Alice._"

Lacie spoke with a strange, uncharacteristic tone of urgency, and Alice suddenly appeared in a burst of light and dust. The brown-haired Chain leaped at Break with her foot outstretched, ready to kick him through the wall. Break suddenly pulled out a cane sword out of seemingly nowhere though, and blocked her kick with ease. He jumped back from the force of the kick, sword still in hand, and Alice landed next to Lacie, who jumped out of her seat.

"Lacie—?!" Jack tried to speak, but a sudden pain in his head stopped him short of his sentence, and he clutched his head with his hand. No one seemed to take notice of him though.

"See? With your resisting, that only proves my point more. Oh," Break turns his attention to Alice, "and it's an honor to meet you... _B-Rabbit_."

_B-Rabbit?_ The name was so familiar to him, so painfully so that the pain in his head doubled, and Jack himself almost doubled over.

"Alice isn't the B-Rabbit," Lacie says, conviction and anger in her voice. It was so strange to hear her sound like that, it wasn't like her...

"Oh? She isn't? If so, why bring her out just when I mention B-Rabbit?" Break mocks, wiping away at some frosting on the corner of his mouth.

"Because even though I'm not B-Rabbit, I know you'd still come chasing after me, you bastards," Lacie nearly growls out, and Break just laughs.

Alice herself actually did growl, though. "Lemme at him! I'll kick this clown to hell, I'll do it!"

At this point, the pain in Jack's head made him unable to even make out the others' words eligibly. It was all just static to his hazy ears. But suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the pain subsided. He felt strange though, as if he wasn't actually awake, as if he was still dreaming...

Despite his drowsiness, he felt his own body move suddenly, at an alarmingly fast rate, leaping over the dinner table and grabbing Sharon by the throat. A knife from the dinner table was suddenly in his hand, and he held it to her neck. "Jack-san..?!"

"Jack?! What are you—" Lacie said in surprise. Jack couldn't really tell, everything was too blurry. He thinks he can sense Alice staring at him too.

"Sharon..!" Oswald was on alert as well, glaring at him with dark eyes.

"This is not Jack," Jack feels his body say. "I am B-Rabbit. Jack is my contractor."

_Eh?_ The B-Rabbit? Jack's Chain? But how...

"Oh? So Lacie-san was right, it seems we've gotten our targets mixed up," Break says, still looking amused, but having another emotion showing on his face, something darker.

"Make any sudden moves, and this girl loses the head on her shoulders," B-Rabbit threatens, pressing the knife against Sharon's throat. Jack tried to gain control of his body, but B-Rabbit's consciousness was too strong.

"Don't worry about me, Break..." Sharon gasps out softly, the cold blade kissing her throat still.

"Sorry B-Rabbit," Break says, "but you won't be doing anything for a while. Oswald-kun!"

Oswald quickly stepped up to Jack's body, to B-Rabbit. "Jabberwock!"

A shining light appeared underneath B-Rabbit, and a circle-shaped symbol with diamonds and other elaborate decorating it glowed with luminescence. A pain gripped Jack's body, and B-Rabbit was forced to release Sharon, the girl stumbling away from the circle. Jack felt himself kneel on the ground in pain, but surprisingly, B-Rabbit was able to laugh mockingly even in this state. "As if something like this could restrain me."

"Huh?" Oswald muttered. Suddenly, the seal on the ground disappeared in a burst of light, knocking Oswald back several feet.

The B-Rabbit, meanwhile, stood menacingly, grinning as he held a giant scythe that seemed to manifest from nothing. Silver chains surrounded Jack's possessed form, distorted power radiating off the chains and his body. "Not so cocky now, are you?" B-Rabbit says mockingly.

Despite everything that was happening at once, Jack thought that he could hear Alice muttering something softly, something sounding strangely familiar, someone's name maybe—

B-Rabbit grips its scythe with both hands and raises it over its head, deathly blade pointed to Oswald still before it. "Goodbye now," it says, grinning.

Oswald grits his teeth and calls out to Jabberwock once again, the circle at B-Rabbit's feet glowing stronger. A cloud of dust starts to gather above Oswald, and the form of a dragon-like creature starts to take shape. The ceiling cracks, and—

"Alice!"

Lacie's voice cuts through the air, and a human-shaped blur whipped past the room and nailed Jack's body right in the gut. Pain pierced his body, and the scythe and bladed chains fade away into dust. B-Rabbit glares up at Alice, who stood before him in a fighting stance.

"Leave his body, B-Rabbit," Lacie says from behind Alice, her red eyes burning in determination.

B-Rabbit barks out a mirthless laugh, wiping the blood away from his, from Jack's chin. "What right do you have to order me around? I have something to do, and I need my contractor's body for that."

"Jack could just reject you right now if he wanted to. If you really want to do whatever it is you want, then cooperate." Lacie speaks with a cold, commanding, unforgiving tone. It frightens Jack a bit for her to act like this.

B-Rabbit is silent for a bit before it laughs again, still mirthless. "I think I'm more powerful than to let my own contractor control me like that."

"That's too bad then," Break speaks up, after being silent for such a long while, "because it really would be easier for us to just kill you and Jack-kun right here and now. Pandora may need the B-Rabbit, but... we don't need you _that_ much." He's smiling that terrifying smile of his, even as he says those ominous words.

Break's words sent a shiver down Jack's spine, his ominous tone frightening Jack to believe he might actually do it. B-Rabbit seems pretty convinced as well, as it takes a couple seconds to considering Break's words.

"Fine," B-Rabbit says after a few moments. "But bear in mind what this man is capable of. You have no idea what he's done in the past, what he's done to me. Mark my words, this man... is going to destroy the world someday."

With that last ominous premonition, the B-Rabbit faded away, lending Jack his body back and letting the blond collapse from exhaustion. Jack is vaguely aware of someone calling his name from far away. He doesn't know who, he doesn't care, all he wants is to rest right now.

In his mind, the B-Rabbit whispers, _I will never forgive you, Jack Vessalius_, before the world fades back to nothingness again.

* * *

><p><em><em>VN: I didn't get to develop the plot as much as I'd have liked too, but it'd be a crime for me to write any further ____than these 3000+ words____. My longest chapter so far, I'm proud. Look forward to the next chapter, now that Oswald is introduced, I can finally start writing some Jack/Lacie/Oswald interaction! That'll be fun! Please review!__


	4. III: increment

_V/N: Eh, I was a bit stuck on what to write in this chapter. But at least I got it done! Also, the content of the chapter will be a bit slow, so sorry. At least it's longer than usual. Enjoy!_

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pandora Hearts. Pandora Hearts and all its characters belong rightfully to Jun Mochizuki-sensei._

* * *

><p><span><em>III: increment<em>

* * *

><p>For the fourth time since he'd awakened to the darkness of the Abyss, Jack Vessalius wakes up with his mind clouded and dreary. His memories of the previous night were blurry at best—he could barely remember the names of the white-haired man and chestnut-haired girl who greeted him when he woke—but for some reason the words <em>B-Rabbit<em> echoed in his head relentlessly, the eerie name weighing his chest down with ominous sort of premonition.

Once he'd awakened, he'd meant to ask for Lacie, where she was, if he could see her. Though the white-haired man, _Break,_ Jack reminds himself of his name, had quickly cornered him to, as he put it, "negotiate" with Jack. The demeanor of Xerxes Break, mischievous and mysterious in the eerie and not-very-enchanting way Lacie wasn't, unnerved Jack to a fair amount. He didn't dare to be rude though; the blond had a sense of respect, especially for the people who had so kindly provided him a secure place to sleep and food.

And somehow, such a situation was currently occurring in which Jack was laying in bed in his bedroom, all alone with Break, as the three others were elsewhere (Break just chuckled infuriatingly when Jack asked). And Break, while simultaneously sucking on a lollipop, explained to Jack the concepts of Chains and Contractors.

"You see, Jack-kun," Break said sitting backward on the chair to the vanity in Jack's room, "Chains' existences are unstable, at least in our world. If a Chain were to ever cross the line separating our world from the Abyss, they would disintegrate into dust within a short amount of time, depending on the power of said Chain. Therefore, Chains search for human 'vessels' to stabilize their unstable existence, so they could devour humans to fuel their power and wreck mass chaos. Those human 'vessels' are called Contractors, making the connection formed between the Chain and human a Contract.

"There are Legal Contractors, and Illegal Contractors. Illegal Contractors are people who've Contracted with Chains, well, illegally! Illegal Contractors are, after a certain amount of time after being Contracted to a Chain, are pulled down into the Abyss for their sins of Contracting with a Chain. Quite ominous, no?" Break smiled brightly, while Jack scowled.

The words _Illegal Contractor_ resounded in his head, and, though it could have been his imagination, his chest throbbed ever so slightly. Jack placed a hand over his heart subconsciously. "Illegal Contractors... are what Lacie and I are, right?" Foggy memories of last night appeared in his head, Break's explanation clearing up his misty thoughts just slightly.

Break clapped his hands happily. "Ah, I knew Jack-kun was an intelligent person!" Emily, still sitting on his shoulder oddly, cackled in a high-pitched voice, "Even though he looks like the very opposite, heeheehee!"

Jack scowled while Break just chuckled and half-heartedly scolded Emily for her rudeness. Jack vaguely recalled Lacie once saying the same when they were still in the Abyss, but somehow hearing it from Break was a thousand times less charming than when Lacie said it. "Ahem," he cleared his throat, a signal for Break to get on with it.

"Anyway," Break continued, thankfully, "yes, you two would be Illegal Contractors, as indicated by the Incuse showing on both your chests."

Jack blinked. "In...cuse? What's an Incuse?"

Break smiled slyly, and Jack never wanted to run straight out of the room more than right now. "Take off your clothes."

A few moments of silence passed.

"What."

"You heard me. I said that an Incuse shows on your chest, so what better way than to see it for yourself?" Break chuckled, as did Emily, and Jack wanted to burn everything down.

Curiosity taking over, Jack decided to ignore the implications (and laughter) of Break's words and hesitantly unbuttoned his dress shirt, his hesitation more for anxiety of what he would see than of Break's teasing. He pulled the shirt down, just enough to see the part of his chest where his heart would be, and the sight made his eyes go wide. It was a strange, enticing design, displaying silent words that spoke of a dark kind of foreboding; a circle with diamond segments all around, with a hand similar to that of a grandfather clock's that pointed to where the 12 o'clock position would be occupying the center. Actually, now that he'd a closer look, the symbol did resemble very much a clock, as if ticking down the seconds to his very demise.

"This is..." Jack breathed out, mesmerized by the symbol.

"That is your Incuse. Proof of your Illegal Contract to the _B-Rabbit_," Break says, fingering the stick of his lollipop idly.

There it is again with the B-Rabbit, and the ominous implications that follow. As if Jack had been presented with a curse he hadn't even known of before waking up to the world. The blond swallowed, trying to clear his thoughts. "And Lacie... has this too?"

Break nods. "Yes. Right there, in the same place, right above her heart. The symbol of an eternal, cursed Contract bound over the heart. Symbolic, isn't it?"

Jack ignored Break's words, if only to not agitate himself. "If this is an Illegal Contract's... 'Incuse'... Then what makes a Legal Contract?"

"I'm glad you asked," Break said brightly, jumping to his feet and finishing off his lollipop in a single bite, tossing the abandoned stick over his shoulder. He reached into his shirt and pulled out a necklace with a round pendant hanging off its gold chain, the pendant having a piece of blood red glass with the same symbol as Jack's Incuse, only without the hand of the clock, on it. "This is what makes a Legal Contract. The pendant the Incuse is bound on is called a Blood Mirror, which is controlled by the heads of the Four Great Dukedoms of Pandora."

At the reminder of the organization of Pandora, a heavy suspicion suddenly tugged at his mind, and Jack pulled his guard up as he stared down the man opposite to him. "Break," Jack says carefully, "if Pandora's purpose is to eliminate Illegal Contractors, like you said earlier... Why haven't you _eliminated_ me yet? Exactly what do you need me for to keep me around?" _It's just like you'd said before,_ Jack thinks to himself, _Pandora may need B-Rabbit... but you don't need him _that_ much._

"Ah, well," Break says, seating himself on top of the bedside dresser casually, "that all stems from our main goal here. You see, Jack... What we want is to unravel the mystery of the Tragedy of Sablier."

Jack blinked. "The Tragedy of Sablier...?" The phrase was so familiar... in such an oddly haunting way.

"After we've dug around for a good while in the span of Pandora's lifetime, we've discovered the suspicion that the B-Rabbit has something to do with the Tragedy of Sablier, how it transpired, and why.

"It's the same reason we need Lacie-san as well," Break adds.

"Eh? Why?"

"Because of her own Chain, Alice. We've noticed that Alice's powers as a Chain is strikingly similar to B-Rabbit's, as if she were either stealing her power from it, or as if the two of them has been created from the same source..."

Jack slowly processed all this. "And so, you want me and Lacie to help you discover the mystery of the Tragedy of Sablier."

"That's right."

Jack stayed silent for a moment, considering his choices. "What if... I were to refuse?"

Break didn't miss a beat responding. "Then you lose the one and only source you have for guidance in a world you know practically nothing about, food, and shelter. Choose wisely, Jack-kun, this may very well be the most important choice in your life."

_I doubt it,_ Jack thought sardonically, staying silent for a few moments. It was true, if he cooperated with Pandora then he'd therefore get everything he needed to survive in the world without difficulty, at a fairly small price as well. However...

"I'll help," Jack said, though continued quickly before Break could interrupt, "But! I have a condition. If you help me with my goal, then... I'll help you with yours."

Break quirked a silvery eyebrow. "And the goal you want help in is...?"

Jack paused, choosing his words carefully, several scattered thoughts and foggy memories swirling in his mind. "I want... I want to find out why I was thrown into the Abyss. Why I'm..." _Why I'm so drawn to Lacie, why I can't seem to get her out of my mind and it scares me terribly._ "If you help me find out why, then... I'll help you."

Break was a silent for a few moments, his face showing no emotion whatsoever, so much so that Jack was afraid for a moment that he'd be rejected. But then the white-haired man just grinned and said, "It's a deal then, Jack Vessalius."

* * *

><p>And hours later, here he was, in the middle of the streets of a town completely unfamiliar to him (not even just an inkling of nostalgia, for once), with Lacie and Oswald trailing close behind. Break had said something earlier about the three of them now be his 'cute little subordinates', making Jack severely think over why he'd even agreed to cooperate, and sent them on a mission to go after an Illegal Contractor. Now here he was in a city nearby Reveil—the current capital city, Sharon had explained—while Lacie was trailing particularly behind him and Oswald, prompting Oswald to go on and hurry her up.<p>

"I'd _appreciate it_ if you wouldn't keep on delaying us by getting caught up by the sights and instead start keeping up with us," Oswald griped, with Lacie dragging her feet behind him.

"I'm not getting 'caught up by the sights'," she replied smoothly, not even glancing at him. "I'm going this so precisely to delay you. In short, I'm purposefully pissing you off." And just as expected, it aggravated him further.

Jack watched this all with a mixture of amusement and exasperation, and suddenly felt something tug at his coat from his right side.

"Mister?" A little girl, looking no more than 10, no less than 7, gazed up at him with big, innocent brown eyes. In her hands was a little basket practically overflowing with flowers. "Would you like to buy a flower?"

Jack smiled down at her. "I would love to." After an exchange of money that was given to him by Break earlier, Jack had bought a red peony. Nice and simple, but just as pretty as any other flower. And the same color as Lacie's eyes...

"Mister?" the little girl asked, snapping Jack out of his thoughts. "You're not from around here, are you?"

Jack smiled at her. "No, I'm not. I came here looking for someone, but two companions seem to be quite occupied with each other—"

"We're not occupied with anything," Lacie's sharp voice sounded from behind him, making Jack and the little girl turn their heads to her. "_Oswald_, though, seems quite distracted."

Oswald glared at her. "Excuse me? _I_ wasn't the one who was gawking around like a child."

"As I said before, I _wasn't_ gawking around at everything. I was _purposefully_ delaying you," Lacie said spitefully, though Jack didn't miss the glint of curiosity in her red eyes as she gazed around town earlier.

"Oh, my..." the girl said as she gazed at the two bickering. Jack smiled down and at her, and put the flower he bought into her hair. She flushed in surprise, and gazed up at Jack as her flashed his most charming smile.

"If I carry it around, it'll end up dying soon. So if it's like this... the both of you will continue to bloom with beauty." That was probably the corniest thing Jack had ever said in his life, but it seemed to charm the girl enough so it didn't matter.

Oswald stared a the scene with distaste. "And which host club did you get _that_ line from?" he commented sardonically. Jack just ignored him and waved the flower girl goodbye as she skipped away happily.

Oswald sighed in irritation. "Seriously, how much time have we already wasted? We have a _job_ to do."

"If we have a _job_ to do, then stop dragging your feet and hurry on up, there's no time to gawk around like a child," Lacie said only to spite him, picking up her pace and was already a block before them.

"What the— you don't have _any_ right to say that!" Oswald snapped, hurrying after her. Jack just chuckled softly and follower on after at his own pace.

* * *

><p>Later that night, the three of them had gotten a hotel room, as the actual investigation for the Illegal Contractor was supposed to begin tomorrow. Despite Lacie insisting on getting her own room, Break had given just enough money for a single room for a single night. Therefore, here Lacie was now, laying on the bed facing away from them, with irritation practically radiating off her.<p>

"I told you, if you're gonna be angry, get angry at Break and not me," Oswald said, sitting on the opposite bed.

"Well, that clown isn't here right now," Lacie said, back still turned towards them. "So for now I'll have to be angry at _this_ clown."

Oswald glared at her, while Jack, laying on the same bed Oswald sat on, said, "Say, Oswald. Why do people make Illegal Contracts at all if they know they'll be pulled into the Abyss soon after?"

Oswald stayed silent for so long that Jack thought that he'd been ignored for a moment. Eventually, he answered, "To change the past."

Oswald's answer made Jack perk up, sitting up on the bed. "To change the past?"

Oswald nodded. "They say that if a Chain gets powerful enough, it gains the power to change the past. And to get that power, the Contractor feeds the Chain 'fuel' for its power—in other words, humans. I've never seen it actually happen before, since the Contractor gets pulled into the Abyss before anything like that can happen, but..."

Jack remained silent, Oswald's words swirling in his mind. Illegal Contracts, feeding humans to a Chain, being pulled into the Abyss, changing the _past_... Exactly what in the world was Jack doing, being an Illegal Contractor? Did he Contract B-Rabbit to change the past, like other Illegal Contractors? Did he ever _feed_ the B-Rabbit humans to fuel its power? _Would I... ever do any of those things?_

"Lacie—" Oswald said, and Jack glanced over to the girl in question. She continued to lay quietly on the bed, which was odd as Jack expected her to speak up and comment sardonically about Oswald's dark words. But looking at the soft breaths she exhaled and the even rise and fall of her chest made it apparent that she had fallen asleep. It was kind of cute, how she fell asleep in the middle of Oswald's speech like that, though she'd do something like smack him if he ever said so to her face.

"Good, she's asleep." Oswald suddenly stood, whipping his black coat over his shoulders and strolled to the door.

"Where are you going?" Jack asked.

"Where else, to look for the Illegal Contractor."

"But I thought you said that the investigation would start tomorrow."

"For you it will," Oswald said, not even facing Jack and taking a sheathed sword in his hand. "I was waiting for you two to fall asleep before I went out, but it's already getting too late. I should get moving."

Soon after, both Jack and Oswald were out in the streets of town, Jack just trailing behind Oswald and looking around at the buildings as Oswald hadn't clarified where they were going exactly.

"Why," Oswald suddenly spoke up, his voice flat, "did you want to tag along again?"

"Because I thought it'd seem fun, chasing down a criminal like this," Jack replied brightly with a grin. "Besides, it'd be boring just staying in that hotel room."

"Is it really find to leave Lacie alone like that?"

"It'll be fine, I left a note at the door," Jack's grin suddenly grew devilish. "It reads, 'Oswald and I are going on a loong, _loooong_ bathroom break'!"

Jack thought he could see a vein pop in Oswald's forehead, which only served to delight the blond. "I'm gonna kill you..."

Jack giggled. "You're nicer than you look though, worry about Lacie like that when all she's done is irritate you all day."

Oswald remained silent, seeming to act too dignified to reply, which told Jack everything he needed to know.

The two of them walked in silence for a bit, until Oswald spoke up, "How...?"

Jack tilted his head. "Hm? How what?"

"How are you still able to smile and laugh and joke around like that, after everything you've gone through and seen? After all this, you're still able to be... _hopeful_?"

_Hopeful._ As if Jack had something to look forward to. He chuckled softly. "I wouldn't really call it hopeful. I just... accept everything as it is. I try not to grieve over what's happened in the past. I like knowing exactly what I'm getting myself into."

"And even though you know, you don't feel any regret getting involved? Resentment over who's gotten you involved?"

Jack's smile suddenly turned remorseful. "I don't... really feel anything about that."

Oswald turned to him, giving Jack an odd look that reflected curiosity and something else... fear?

Suddenly Oswald turned his back to him. "What about Lacie?"

Jack blinked. "Huh? What about Lacie?"

"You seem quite attached to her. Why is that, even though you've only known her for a short time and she acts so cold to you."

Jack stayed silent for a moment. "I... wonder that myself. It just... feels like I owe her for something. As if she's saved me before. As if...—" _As if I can't live without her. As if without Lacie I am... nothing—!_

A sudden explosion sounded from behind them, shaking the earth underneath their feet and sending dust and rubble flying everywhere. An aura of darkness suddenly filled the air, making Jack choke on essentially nothing. Shocked screams and shrieks filled the streets as the residents woke up to tremors like and earthquake and the sight of a building crumbling to the ground—

"Wait," Oswald said in sudden realization. "Isn't that where we're staying?!"

_And our hotel room—_ "Lacie!"

Jack took off with a sudden urgency towards the crumbling hotel. He was vaguely aware of Oswald's voice calling out his name from behind him, and soon later the sound of footsteps following his own. But all he was focused on was getting to that hotel—!

* * *

><p>In her private bedroom at the Rainsworth Dukedom's manor house, Sharon Rainsworth sat peacefully in a cushioned chair with a cup of camomile tea in hand. Two sugars and just a bit of milk, her favorite. Though her white-haired companion, deciding to help himself to the cookies instead of his tea, stood at the window overlooking the city. He had a devious smile on his face, whereas Sharon was displeased.<p>

"What you're doing is cruel, you know," she commented.

Break just chuckled. "I wonder if it's already happening."

Sharon sighed, and held up a picture of the Contractor those three were chasing. The person's clothes, or rather rags, were covered in blood, and the Incuse on their chest... Already more than 80% of the way to a full revolution. "This picture of the Incuse is the only thing I didn't give them."

Break grinned at her. "Because I didn't think they'd accept it as easily as they did if they knew of the circumstances." He turned towards the window, gazing out at the city with an odd expression. "Besides... this is my kindness. The truth is better known as soon as possible." Break's single eye, red as blood, gleamed in the moonlight.

* * *

><p><em>VN: Eh, I'm still not exactly happy with it but it's been done. Look forward to more excitement the next chapter. Please review!_


	5. IV: incentive

_V/N: Okay, so I really have no excuse for this lateness. I already had the chapter finished on Sunday night, but I was too half-assed to bother proof-reading and editing it til now. So sorry for the lateness, really. Enjoy!_

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pandora Hearts. Pandora Hearts and all its characters belong rightfully to Jun Mochizuki-sensei_

* * *

><p><span><em>IV: incentive<em>

* * *

><p><em>It's cold. It's so cold.<em>

_It's snowing outside, droplets of frozen rain falling from the sky in tiny little flakes that covered the muddy ground like a freshly washed, freshly knitted blanket. Contrary to its appearance of a blanket however, an object representing warmth and comfort and the exact opposite of loneliness, the alabaster surface may as well be death itself; cold and unforgiving and motionless and ever-so-beckoning you towards its icy grasp and out of this wretched world. And here she was, standing right in the middle of this cruel, cold world weaved out of pain and despair, dressed in nothing but a simple summer dress. The inkling signs of frostbite nipped at her barefoot toes, snowflakes tickling at her bare arms and neck as she leisurely skipped her way down the abandoned street, humming a nostalgic song under her breath._

_What was she doing here again?_

Ah, that's right,_ she thought, _I got in a fight with my brother.

_Yes, her brother. Her brother, who had soft, black hair (not softer than her own though, of course), who had dark eyes that always looked at her with affection, even when she teased him endlessly. Her brother, who stuck by her side even during their dark, unforgiving past before the Baskervilles. __Her brother, who would someday inherit the name of Glen Baskerville (though she'd never see that happen, because of the fate spelled by her cursed red eyes). Her brother, whose name was—_

Ah._ Out of the corner of her eye, she sees someone. Someone with golden-colored hair that, though matted with mud and grime, shone brightly in pure white of snow, __as if it was radiating sunlight. And the figure bearing the head of sunshine, skinny and pale, was bundled up in a thick blanket, which seemed more like __a cluster of old rags knitted together. Whatever it was seemed warmer than the dress she wore._

_Maybe she approached him solely for the warmth the blanket he had. Maybe she approached him on a whim, simply to distract her, entertain her til she had to return. Regardless of reasons, there was just something about that person that made her want to reach her hand out to him, even if out of pity. _How strange. I seem to be... drawn to you—

_"Hey," she spoke up, standing in front of the person, smiling brightly at him. "My name is Lacie. Who are you?"_

_And he looked up. His eyes, colored emerald green, were... unnerving. They were so _empty_. Despite her being a Child of Misfortune let her experience the many cruelties of this world, she's never seen so much hopelessness at once. Those eyes, hollow like an endless void, reflected nothing back at her, even when she showed the person a kindness she showed nearly no one else. _This person is...!

_"I..." He spoke, __his __voice raspy and__ just as hollow and vacant as his green eyes, with such despair __and__ forlornness, but she kept smiling. "I am—"_

* * *

><p>The world underneath her suddenly shook with girth and force, as if the earth itself was crumbling to dust, with her right in the middle. The room tilted sideways, knocking her right off the bed, and the wall to her left exploded into dust and rubble. A dark aura filled the torn room, and without looking Lacie immediately knew that the thing that burst into her room, the creature with a bulbous head crudely stitched together with stuffing oozing out its side, a serpentine body made of tattered fabric, and dull voids for eyes was a <em>Chain<em>.

The Chain's segmented fingers, ending in bladed kitchen knives for claws, were inches away from piercing her head. Lacie swallowed her burning nerves, and cried out sharply, "_Alice!_"

Another tremor occurred when the Chain thrust its second hand into the hotel again, completely obliterating the building. The floor beneath her feet crumbled to dust, and gravity pulled her down towards the ground 20 feet below her. _Figures we'd rent a room on the second floor—!_ A dark yet familiar aura surrounded her body, and the form a young girl, no older than 15, appeared beside her. Small yet strong arms gripped her form and pulled her safely down into the streets below. Just as the Chain turned to face the two of them, a girl whose appearance was near identical to her own, if not younger and less matured, took a defensive position against the Chain.

The Chain cackled maniacally. "I—I—I _found youu~_!"

Lacie gritted her teeth just as Alice leaped up to attack the Chain. "Damn you!" the girl screamed, kicking the Chain right in its gut—if it even _had_ a gut. Lacie's eyes shifted to the faint shadow of a person, a _Contractor_ below the Chain. So this was the Contractor they were looking for. A single glance at the Contractor's chest however, with the clock-like symbol of the Incuse having revolved 4/5 of the way around, and her eyes widened in alarm.

"Lacie!" a familiar voice cried out to her, prompting Lacie to turn around. Jack, with Oswald on his tail, was running towards her. "Lacie, are you okay?!"

Lacie opened her mouth to respond, but a sharp movement right in front of her prompted her to turn abruptly to the Chain, who was swinging its clawed hands down at her. She swiftly leaped to the side to avoid being either impaled or crushed or _both_ by the Chain, rubble flying all around her. She was vaguely aware of Jack crying out her name, but paid attention to nothing but the creature in front of her. Alice kicked it sharply in the head while it was distracted with Lacie, while Lacie swiftly pulled out a gun, lent to her by Break, and aimed it at the Contractor down below. She pulled the trigger, the gunshot echoing down the streets, but the Contractor had twisted to the side and avoided the bullet. Lacie cursed.

"Does it _look_ I'm okay?!" she shouted to Jack and Oswald, who were frozen in place.

The Chain, finally taking notice of the two newcomers, thrust its claws into the street they stood on. _Good riddance,_ Lacie thought dryly. Jack had leaped to the side, right beside herself, while Oswald had jumped back, his sword already unsheathed and ready to be used in battle.

Jack laughed nervously. "Well, you seem to be handling it better than us..."

Lacie stared at Jack. How is he able to laugh off something like this so easily...?

Another explosion turned her attention back to the Chain, with Oswald already starting to get out Jabberwock to combat the Chain. Jack's eyes widened suddenly, and he gasped out, "That's—"

"What's wrong?!" Lacie said, alarmed and concerned.

Jack's eyes were glued to the Chain though, or more precisely, its Contractor. For once, he didn't even seem to hear her. "That's... the girl from before... She's the...?!"

Lacie whipped her eyes to the Contractor, and sure enough, it was undoubtedly the little flower girl from before, her big brown eyes that once shone with innocence were now twisted and bulging in pain and despair. In her hair was a red peony, the same red peony from this morning when Jack and first bought it from her.

Suddenly, the girl threw her head back and screamed. It was a horrible, bloodcurdling scream, that shook Lacie to her very core, so much so that she was surprised her ears weren't bleeding by now. Suddenly, the pressure of the atmosphere doubled, and a dark aura filled the air around them. A hazy cloud of black dust swirled around the girl, who still screamed in pure agony, and a bright light opened up in the floor beneath the flower girl's feet. Slowly, agonizingly, the girl was pulled down into the depths of the Abyss, still screaming louder than ever. In her final moments, she reached out with her hand towards the sky, her wails suddenly forming into what suspiciously sounded like _help me_. And she was gone.

Jack remained rooted to the spot, staring at the ground where the Illegal Contractor was pulled into the Abyss. For a moment, Lacie thought that he'd burst into tears or start screaming in horror just like the girl there, but no, he did nothing like that. He just sat there and stared.

* * *

><p>Some time later, Jack doesn't know how long, the three of them sat in a carriage heading back to the Rainsworth mansion. Oswald and Lacie idly chatted about miscellaneous things as they rode on, the Illegal Contractor they had come there for, their previous unknowing of the extent of the Incuse's revolution, the two of them wanting to <em>kill<em> Break. But for once, Jack remained silent, his eyes clouded, his face expressionless, and his mind whirring with what just happened a couple hours ago.

"_Why_ didn't you or that white-haired clown tell us of that beforehand?" Lacie growled, her head turned towards the carriage's window to leer outside.

"I didn't _know_ that the girl's Incuse had already revolved so far," Oswald grumbled back, arms crossed and looking just as annoyed as Lacie. "If you're gonna blame anyone, blame Break. He's the one who set us up."

Lacie clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Maybe you didn't know that, but what you _did_ know was what we were supposed to do there."

Oswald quirked his eyebrow. "'What we were supposed to do there'?"

"Dirty work. Eliminate the target like a bunch of hit men. And we're supposed to be okay with this?" Lacie crossed her legs, turning to leer at Oswald instead of the muddy streets outside. "You seem rather okay with this yourself, though. I first thought that you'd be too much of a pansy to resort to violence so quickly, but I guess I was wrong..."

Oswald leered back at her just as sharply. "You underestimated me then. I wouldn't hesitate to get rid of who I need to in order to get what I want. It's as simple as that."

Lacie intensified her glare tenfold. "Is that what you're going to do me?"

Oswald furrowed his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"I'm an Illegal Contractor, and so is Jack. Since you're the self-proclaimed _pawn_ of Pandora, would you do the same you would to that little girl to us?"

Oswald narrowed his eyes. "I would, without a doubt."

Suddenly, a pillow flew at him and hit him in the face at point-blank range. Lacie was now standing, her red eyes reflecting fury at him. "You disgust me," she hissed out. "Blindly following the orders of your 'superiors' like a loyal puppy, even if those orders were for you to do something like kill a child or kill your comrades. Have you no _dignity_?"

Another pillow was launched at him, though Oswald expected it and caught it with ease. "You're lecturing about dignity when _you're_ the one throwing around pillows like an eight-year-old?!" He flung the pillow right back at her.

She dodged it smoothly, simply grabbing the one next to her seat. "And _you_ dare to criticize me for throwing around pillows right before throwing one back?!" She immediately flung the pillow in hand at her opponent, and soon it turned into a vicious back-and-forth.

"You're a _child_!" Oswald yelled.

"You're an _oaf_!" Lacie rebutted.

They just stood there, glaring at each other with relentless malice.

"Say something, Jack!" they simultaneously, turning their glares to Jack.

"Hm? Oh." Despite their glares being enough to burn four individual holes in his head, Jack simply smiled wryly. "Well, there's really nothing we can do about it, can we? So why not just go along with it?" He was responded to by having two pillows thrown to the face, which he just laughed at.

"Maybe some other time I would have admired your ability to brush off every instance with a smile, but you just annoy me right now," Oswald said as Jack grinned.

"For once, the puppet is right," Lacie says, turning away from Oswald and flipping her hair back at him, an action that annoyed him to no end.

"What, so first I'm a clown and now I'm a puppet?" Oswald said dryly.

"Yes. You're a never-ending cycle of shape-shifting patheticness."

Oswald growled. "Why you—"

Jack just chuckled at their bickering, and said, "Hey, Oswald. You said that people Contracts with Chains to change the past, right?"

"Yeah," Oswald said, finally calming down.

"Ah..." His smile suddenly turned sad, his green eyes clouding over. "I wonder... what could've happened to that little girl to make her want to change the past like that..."

Suddenly the atmosphere in the carriage grew heavy, Oswald and Lacie finally ceasing their bickering, leaving the only noise to be heard was the clatter of the wheels against the muddy road below.

After a good 20 minutes, the carriage rolled to a stop. The three of them stepped, and Jack was face with a large mansion, about just as big as the Rainsworths'. The manor was spread over at least several acres, with beautifully lush gardens and intricately built architecture. The gate they had stopped at was several meters high, brick walls outlining the manor grounds, and the very front of the gate having a large "V" over the front of it. Jack suddenly realized with a start what the "V" stood for. _Vessalius._

"Eh? What are we doing here?" Jack asked, his eyes glued to the mansion. It seemed more old and worn down than what he expected, though he had no solid memories of the house to expect from, but it still held that air of nostalgia that made him feel like a child.

"Break sent us here for some business with the Vessaliuses, I believe he said. It makes sense, since they seem to be Jack's original family," Oswald explained, prompting Jack to stare at him with a surprised expression. "What? Break told you of this, didn't he?"

Lacie crossed her arms and gave Oswald a judging stare. "You realize what you just said, right? That you _expected_ Break to do something that was his own responsibility, when he so obviously pinned it on you just now?"

Oswald opened his mouth, probably to retort something back at her I his defense, but took a moment to think it over. "...You have a point. The bastard..."

"Don't blame something on him that was your own mistake to make," Lacie scolded him, prompting him to glare at her.

Jack, however, was too occupied with walking through the gates and into the gardens. He could see some definite age having worn down the building, with the paint on the walls chipped and faded, vines growing from practically everywhere and anywhere, and weeds sprouting in random spots on the ground, making the cobblestone path he was following very difficult to walk through. For some reason, the aging and declining of the mansion seemed especially potent here and only here; which was quite odd, coupled along with the fact that no one from the Vessalius house had come to greet them for a good while.

Jack tried to cautiously step over what seemed to be an overturned block of cobblestone, but to his surprise, the ground gave way under his weight and he was suddenly pulled down into darkness. Luckily an overgrown bush had broken his fall, and though he had quite a few leaves and vines stuck to his form, he was mostly unharmed. He pushed himself up to his feet, steadying himself, and came face to face with what seemed to be a... tombstone.

The stone of the tomb was clearly worn with age and weather, vines wrapping themselves all around the grave. Behind it and looming over it was a large tree, big roots unearthed and coiling around the grave protectively as if to shield it from harm. It was amazing, really, how this big tree and tombstone came to get here, as Jack was certain this was quite a good number of meters below ground. And like everything else about this mansion, but most likely even moreso with this gravestone, an ambiance of nostalgia pulled him towards the grave, his hand outstretched towards the blurred letters of the grave.

On top the stone, sitting there peacefully untouched by the vines and greenery, was a gold pocket watch. Intricate designs of swirls and curves decorated the gold surface. Oddly enough, the pocket watch seemed in mint condition, if not brand new, despite its timeworn surroundings. He's seen it before. He knows it, there's no doubt in his mind, he's seen this before. _And I need to..._ He slowly reached out to the pocket watch.

It was only until his fingertips brushed the surface of the watch when he realized that the blurred letters carved into the gravestone spelled out _Lacie_, and the world went black.

* * *

><p><em>VN: Also, just a little heads up. This fic won't be updating as often as I'd like it to from now on. I was hoping for updating it weekly, but obviously that won't happen since I'm a single human being, I have a live outside of the internet, and my inspiration for this fic is limited even though I have it planned out from start to finish (mostly)._

_That doesn't mean I'm abandoning the fic! Oh no, I'm determined to get through this train wreck all the way through, and I'm hoping you guys will stick with me and it through it all. Please review!_


End file.
